How to form and grow a team for optimal performance using Tuckman's forming, storming, norming, performing diagram

Tuckman's model

Back in 1965 an educational psychologist published a paper which has become a classic in the literature of small group development. He is Bruce W. Tuckman and his paper, probably the most influential in the field, was entitled "Developmental Sequence in Small Groups."

In this paper the author first proposed the model, which has since become widely used and is very well known in group facilitation and adult education circles as the "Forming, storming, norming and performing model."

This model has been used for nearly 50 years both as an analytic tool to examine the functioning of groups and as a facilitation tool to help groups develop into optimally functioning units.

The model has, of course, attracted a great deal of criticism also, as any popular model would. However, from a practical facilitation perspective it is a handy tool that is simple to understand and has definite benefits for practitioners and group members.

Diagram of the Tuckman "Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing" model of group development

The model and teamwork

An
important application of the model, aside from its use in small
groups set up for a variety of purposes, is to help teams,
specifically work teams, develop rapidly to a stage of high
performance.

The
basic concept is that at any time within a group or team there are
two sets of issues or concerns felt by the members. These issues are
termed task and process or relationship issues , and they can be
envisaged as being on continua which, when put together, form two
axes of a "window" model, with task issues represented on
the Y axis and relationship issues on the X axis. Group formation is
situated on the bottom left corner of the model with the
developmental stages moving outward along the axes.

At
each stage in the development of the group or team different issues
arise, and these can be dealt with appropriately in order to move the
group through the stages to become fully functioning. More on this
later.

Teams are formed to do what invididuals cannot accomplish on their own. Illustration from Scholtes, Joiner and Streibel

Building a High Performance TeamTeams have existed in some form for as long as humankind and many books and articles have been written about how teams work. Most people have been on teams with mixed results. Teams can have a tremendous...

Good Team Work: How to be a team playerIf you've applied for a job on one of those long and slightly annoying job application forms then you will have probably come across a question like this ... 'Demonstrate your ability to work in a team' or...

Belbin Team Roles - How to Build a Winning TeamIn today’s fast-paced, competitive world, choosing the right mix of people to make up a team is of vital importance. Belbin Team Roles is a key management tool for corporate team building success.

What is a team?

What
is a team and why is it important for a team leader or manager to
understand the group development model? A team is a group which is
formed to achieve a certain task or set of tasks that can be more
efficiently achieved by a group working together than by individuals
working on their own.

One
of the best definitions of a team is: "A
team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are
committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for
which they are mutually accountable." (Katzenbach and Smith,
1993: The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-performance
Organization. Boston: Harvard
Business School.)

The
words which are important in this definition are "committed",
"common purpose" and "mutually accountable". What
distinguishes a team from any other group is that the members are
committed to a common purpose and hold each other mutually
accountable for the achievement of that purpose.

And it
is the commitment and the mutual accountability that give the group
development model its importance to the team.

Teams
commonly operate within larger organisations, often as temporary
means to achieve the goals of specific projects, often once-off,
which will disband again once the project goals have been achieved.

They
are also usually non-hierarchical, with shifting leadership according
to the short-term goals that are needed, the "milestones"
along the road to the achievement of the overall goal.

Team development model from Scholtes, Joiner and Streibel

Team development

When
thinking about teams working in this kind of project scenario there
are obviously three dimensions in which they operate - the
organisation as a whole, the team, and the individuals within the
team. And these dimensions need to be kept aligned for optimal
results.

Authors
Scholtes, Joiner and Streibel (The Team Handbook,
2002, Madison WI, Oriel Incorporated) have developed a model of these
dimensions as they relate to the primary tasks of the team. The
primary tasks of the team at the organisational level are expressed
as its purpose, or why the team exists, or its mission; partnerships,
or with whom the team will work,its values and beliefs; and the
process, how the team will achieve what it meant to achieve, its
management systems and reviews.

At the
team level the primary task is set out in its charter and goals; its
partnership model is contained in its norms and channels of
communication; and its processes are defined in its methods and
procedures.

The
individual level of the model has the purpose expressed in defined
roles and responsibilities; the partnership within the team is how
people relate to each other, their interpersonal skills; and the
process is how they solve problems and plan together.

Group development model applied to teams

The
group development model shows that the group will go through certain
developmental stages while dealing with the dimensions and tasks as
set out in the team development model.

At the
beginning, when the group has just been formed, the stage is called
just that: "Forming". In this stage group members will be
concerned, on the relationship axis, with personal identity in the
team: "who am I in this set-up?" "How do I fit in?"
"Who else is in the team?" The task dimension at this stage
has to do with "why are we here?" What are our goals?"
"What are our expectations?" "How similar to or
different from mine are the expectations of the others in the team?"

The
next stage of the model is called "Storming" because that
is what tends to happen. Team members start to express their
differences, sometimes quite forcefully. This includes disagreeing
with even such fundamental issues as the purpose of the group. It
tends to be mostly concentrated around the question of "How?":
How do we relate? How will we deal with differences?"

After
the "storming" comes the "Norming" when team
members start to make decisions around specific issues, and in
particular how things will get done - i.e. the norms that will
operate in the group. However, these stages tend to be somewhat
cyclical - the group will storm around an issue and then find a
normative solution for it, then another issue will cause a new bout
of storming until that is normed, and so on until the group has dealt
with all the issues and can get down to the real business, which
happens in the "Performing" stage.

Here
the norms have been agreed and the issues of roles and
responsibilities ironed out. the team members will start to work
collaboratively to achieve the mission of the team.

As we
have noted, such teams are usually somewhat temporary, and so once
the mission has been accomplished, the team will face its
dissolution, and that is the fifth stage added in a later version by
Tuckman in 1975, called "Adjourning", and in this stage
members start to feel insecure and it is necessary to help them find
security and support in other ways than through the team.

Team leadership skills

The
team leader needs to be sensitive to all these stages of group
development to help the team deal with all the task and relationship issues as it goes about its task. If the stages are dealt with
adequately and members are helped to develop the necessary
interpersonal skills the team will move relatively rapidly through
the stages to reach the Performing stage. If however, the team leader
is not skillful enough to facilitate the team through the stages the
members will tend to get stuck, commonly in the Storming stage, and
not be able to get the work done.

A team
leader therefore has to not only be sensitive to the stages of team
development, but also needs to have a relatively high level of
facilitation skills to help the team members grow and develop the
commitment and mutual trust that will enable them to operate as a
team and achieve the team's mission.

Copyright Notice

The text and all images on this page, unless otherwise indicated, are by Tony McGregor
who hereby asserts his copyright on the material. Should you wish to
use any of the text or images feel free to do so with proper attribution
and, if possible, a link back to this page. Thank you.

Comments

No HTML is allowed in comments, but URLs will be hyperlinked. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites.

sending

AUTHOR

Tony McGregor

8 years agofrom South Africa

WO - thanks for stopping by. Tuckman really does work - and I have seen it operate in multi-cultural groups too. I have not looked into the Hofstede model too deeply so can't comment on that.

Thanks again

Love and peace

Tony

WestOcean

8 years agofrom Great Britain

The Tuckman model is a classic. It would be interesting to know how it applies across cultures and societies. This is where I imagine the Hofstede model really bites.

AUTHOR

Tony McGregor

8 years agofrom South Africa

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting. Thanks CRG for that interesting bit about the submariners.

Love and peace

Tony

CostReductionGuru

8 years ago

I have taught this for years both at work and with youth. This is a great and simple model. We also used simulation events to create the stages and "feel" what performing is like.

A little side note is that Tuckman did the study for the US Navy when they were getting ready to send submariners out for 6 months by themselves with no other contact. The brass thought maybe the crews would kill each other.

Thanks for the great HubPage!

TaylorAdams

9 years agofrom Philadelphia

Good detailed information. Thank you for sharing value. Just what I needed.

Shawn M.

9 years agofrom Pittsburgh, PA

Nice information, developing a strong organiztion doesn't happen overnight, but is built over time with principles behind it. Great hub!

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)